


Running on empty

by imsfire



Series: Droid Week 2018 [3]
Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Angst and Feels, Droid Feels, Gen, K-2SO saves the day, Pre-Canon, greater love hath no droid, injured Cassian, minor medical details, putting yourself in danger to save a friend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-08
Updated: 2018-08-08
Packaged: 2019-06-23 20:44:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15614622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imsfire/pseuds/imsfire
Summary: "Personal power levels became dangerously low.  Prioritised continuous flight.  Fastest possible return journey.  Could not leave controls..."When a mission goes wrong and Cassian is injured, K-2 has to get him back to base in a damaged ship, with his own fuel cells already dangerously low.





	Running on empty

**Author's Note:**

> For Droid Appreciation Week on tumblr; theme, Love.

It was sheer chance that Harter Kalonia was standing outside Pyramid Three when the U-wing came in.  Her break was almost over; in another five minutes she would have gone back inside the med-centre, into the sweaty brightness she’d been so glad to leave behind for a chance to sit on a broken wall and drink her third cup of kaf of the day.  Not that the temperature was any lower there, but at least the breeze outside made the humidity easier to bear.

There was engine noise, incoming, which was nothing out of the ordinary; but it didn’t sound right, the engines were stuttering and roaring, choked, too loud.  She glanced up as a familiar shape came into view, moving dangerously fast, its approach vector low over the tree tops, and it swerved round with a visible upward jerk and stalled, then dropped like a stone. 

 _Shit._  

Everything around her seemed to go slow as her joints suddenly went fluid with energy, as she leapt up, her heartrate soaring.  In front of her personnel and droids scattered, heads turned and voices yelled, arms pointed.  Every nerve in her body sang out _Crash crash **crash**!_ and she was moving forwards even as everyone else fell back, and with a hideous airborne lurch the ship righted itself to something like level flight, just seconds before it struck the ground.  Even so it hit the runway lopsided, the starboard landing thrusters coming on before port; almost enough to flip it, but not quite.  A successful emergency landing.  Just.

The crew would have taken a hell of a beating from that bump-down.  She hoped anyone on board was properly strapped in.

Hells, it looked like Andor’s ship, too.  And if he was flying that badly…

There were other ground crew running after her within seconds, but she was the first to reach the U-wing.  Barely a month since she’d signed him off from medical and now this?

The hull was badly scored and the port-side hyperdrive vents were sparking and dripping fluid onto the tarmac.  Nasty, but not her lookout.  She raised her hand to hit the exterior release on the aft hatch but before she could touch it the durasteel plating groaned and began to open, locks triggered from within.  Kalonia leapt on board as soon as the gap was wide enough for her body. 

No-one in the hold.  The only sound was the hissing and crackling of the damaged engine.  Behind her a blurry roar started up, of fire-suppressant foam being jetted onto the outer hull, masking off oxygen from the vent before the damaged power conduits could arc and start a full-blown blaze.

She should have waited till they finished, till the ship was declared safe.  Oh well, krif that.  She grabbed on to the ladder to the upper deck.  “Captain Andor?  Captain Andor!”

“He’s up here,”  said a weak voice.  The droid, Andor’s shadow.  Speaking strangely, and slowly as someone drugged.  Kalonia scrambled up the gangway into the cockpit.

Cassian Andor was in the co-pilot seat; he’d been strapped in, but his head was lolling and there was blood on the side of his neck, and on his jacket.

“Shit,” she said.

K-2SO sat at the pilot’s position.  It had been strapped in properly too.  Both its hands were on the flight controls.  It appeared the droid had been flying the ship alone.

It was swaying.  It cranked its head round to look at her.

“Will he be alright?”

Kalonia was already at the Captain’s side, checking.  He had a pulse, his pupils were reactive, but he was out cold.  Blaster wounds, at least two, and a head injury.  She shouted “Get up here!” to the other med-techs who were still hovering outside. “I need a stretcher here, now!”

“I got here as quickly as I could,” K-2SO said quietly. 

“I’m sure you did,” she told it absently.  Droids always did their best.  Two of her team were clambering up, and she undid the clips on Andor’s seatbelt and helped them lift him out and lower him down to the waiting hover dolly. “Can you fill me in on what happened, K-2?  Just the basic details.  Did he receive any first aid?  How long has he been unconscious?”

K-2’s optics flashed faintly. “Phase one of the mission over-ran and disrupted my regular recharging cycle.  We returned to the U-wing two days later than scheduled and were attacked as we made our approach.  I was able to reach Cassian and get him on board but not before he had been hit twice and had struck his head on the edge of the hatch in falling.”

It sounded like something recorded, like a pre-prepared mission report; and Force, why couldn’t the damn thing just answer her questions?  “I don’t need the whole story, it’s okay, you can skip ahead.  Did he receive any first aid?” She needed to know; if any meds were administered, in particular. “When did he lose consciousness?”

Normally K-2 would have an answer precise to within seconds, asked _When_ anything occurred.  Today the grey half-globe of its skull carapace nodded up and down slowly and the droid said “Skip ahead.  Yes.  I - first aid - yes.  Administered basic.  On-board med-kit.  But.  After taking off.  Observed - hyperdrive damaged.  Overheating after 20 stan mins.  Only shortest possible hops safe.  Direct piloting essential throughout.  Personal power levels became dangerously low.” Oh, what the fuck was it telling her? “Prioritised continuous flight.  Fastest possible return journey.  Could not.  Leave controls.  Unable to recharge - duration.  Cassian remained conscious - first twenty-nine hours.”

With two serious blaster wounds and a severe concussion.  Even by Andor’s often-grim standards this must have been the voyage from hell. 

She needed to know how long he’d been out of it.  How long since he was shot.  If K-2 couldn’t answer a plain question she had no choice but to try an oblique one.

“Where was the mission?”

“Kanshorr.” Good, they’d be able to calculate from that, Kanshorr to Yavin 4.

“Will he be alright?” the droid asked again.

“He’s in the best place for him.” Too human an answer, perhaps, but the thing sounded so kriffing shaky that her repertoire of reassurance was coming out on instinct.  “He’s getting the care he needs now.  K-2, I need you to tell me what first aid you administered.  Did you apply any treatment direct to the blaster burns?  Did you give your Captain any meds?”

She could hear the voices receding as the triage team ferried Andor away for a proper evaluation in med-bay.  Damn this rambling droid, she just needed a few facts!  It couldn’t be _tired_ , for the love of light…

“Administered pain meds.  Standard issue.  Three times.  20ml.  Hypo.  Spray.  Apologies.  Now running on.  2% normal power levels.  Only basic processing and.  Language subroutines.  Operational.”

The hells; 2%?  The droid was running on fumes.  It quite literally _was_ tired.  “Okay.  Okay, you did good, K-2.  Captain Andor’s in the best hands.  You can stand down now.”

“Unable to.  Comply.  Unable to stand.” The round grey head dropped forward slowly and the calm voice said “Powering down.  Please call.  Technical.”

The optics flickered and went out.

Kalonia waited a few seconds more, but it had definitely switched itself off. 

She fished out her hand-held. “Droid maintenance?  Doctor Kalonia here.  I need tech support and a fully-charged gonk with an extender cable at the U-wing that just came in, stat.”

It really was a remarkable thing, the bond between these two.  Andor had stuck his neck out repeatedly over having exceptions made for the droid; no wipes, no bolt, no constraints on the autonomy of its performance.  She would never tell anyone, but she knew as well that more than once in the field he had risked injury himself to ensure its safety. 

And now here it was, doing as much for him.  Potentially more; it was totally helpless, fuel cells depleted past the level where it could even move its own weight.  Right now, if anyone were to decide to do it, K-2 could be bolted, or worse; lobotomised, disassembled.  Just as it could have been destroyed at any time during the last however-many days, flying non-stop from Kanshorr in a damaged ship.  No goal but to get Cassian to safety.

What was that old saying; the greatest love is to lay down your life for a friend?

And it trusted her to have the same priority.

“And send someone who’s worked with Andor’s ex-Imp before,” she added. “You know the one.  K-2SO.”

“Oh, _fun_ ,” said the voice on the other end. 

Kalonia bristled. “None of that attitude.  I’m serious.  I do _not_ want a repetition of the scene we had in the spring.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Good.  Kalonia out.”

She had to get back to work; her break was well over by now.  She rested her hand on the insensate body at the flight controls for a moment.  K-2 couldn’t even hear her, but she felt compelled to say it just the same. “You did the right thing, K-2SO.  Well done.”


End file.
